Over the last decade or so, for most businesses, it has become a necessity for employees to share data over an enterprise network featuring one or more local area networks. To improve efficiency, enhancements have added to a local area network such as remote wireless access. This enhancement provides an important extension in forming a wireless local area network.
Typically, a WLAN supports communications between wireless stations and Access Points (APs). In general, each AP operates as a relay station by supporting communications with both wireless stations being part of a wireless network and resources of a wired network.
In addition to APs and corresponding wireless stations, conventional WLANs feature passive monitoring systems. These systems are configured to simply scan traffic on the WLAN and to conduct performance tasks based on recognized behavior. For example, one performance task may involve measuring signal strength. Another performance task may involve determining whether an AP detected within a wireless coverage area is unauthorized.
If any problems are detected, conventional monitoring systems do not have any capability to correct such problems. Instead, a notification is sent by the system to an administrator. For instance, upon detection of an unauthorized AP, the passive monitoring system currently sends a notification to an administrator to prevent wireless stations in the area from accessing the unauthorized AP. This inability of monitoring systems to automatically handle problems and enforce policy followed by the network may cause undesirable latency in correcting problems and increased overall administrative costs. In addition, mere notification adversely effects overall security of the network by increasing its exposure to hackers.